Written by Kevin Aquino
Disneynature’s Penguins is a documentary-style, coming-of-age story filled with beautiful camera work, humor, fun narration and some exhilarating survival sequences.
It follows Steve, an Adélie penguin in Antarctica, who has to catch up with the rest of his species, build a nest, find a partner and start a family. Steve is voiced by Ed Helms, who also narrates the project. Steve waddles across the cold, bumping into different penguin species before finding his own, but still has his fair share of hardships after joining his kind.
The camerawork is excellent, getting up close and personal with the penguins, and gorgeous underwater action. Disneynature does a great job of capturing each moment, making it feel like the viewer is right there in the Arctic. As the narrator, Helms is excellent at explaining what’s happening on screen, but also shines when he switches into playing Steve’s voice. He truly brings Steve as a character to life, which adults and kids alike can enjoy.
As much as cute penguins are the focal point of the story, there has to be a mention of predators and prey when dealing with nature. The most memorable penguin predator is the leopard seal, who can kill up to 100 penguins everyday — surely a cause for concern for the audience and the penguins themselves. When Steve’s chicks have to face a journey against lurking leopard seals alone, it’s nothing short of an edge-of-your-seat experience.
There was a preview before the movie that mentioned that Disneynature’s films take years to make, so that the animals can take the lead and tell their own story. For the audience to go through whole seasons with Steve and the other Adélies, there had to be an immense amount of work, and Disneynature certainly did their fair share.
But Disneynature filled the 1-hour-and-16-minute runtime by pairing interesting, easy-to-follow information with stellar nature shots, removing any possibility of a dull moment. And when the stakes are survival, it’s easy for the viewer to get invested. Penguins is definitely catered to families and kids, but anyone interested in learning more about how penguins live can tune into this worthwhile documentary by Disneynature.
